This is a super exciting week for me. Agility class starts back up Monday night, and I have an agility private on Saturday.

It has been over a month, probably closer to 6 weeks, since I have actually really trained, and I am very excited to get back into it. Not only did I have a long time off from training because of the holidays, but I also had a big health scare. Luckily thanking God, I do NOT have liver cancer, it is just a hemangeoma(I have thousands of dollars of tests to prove that), my only issues are gallstones, aging female issues, and elevated cholesterol. I also rearranged my priorities during my time off from training, and am now only training Filly, and just in agility. Rivet is now my son's pal, and my husband's hunting dog. My house is cleaner, and more organized, I am making better use of my time, and able to spend more time with family now that I am doing less running with the dogs. I think it will really help me be more successful with Filly now that I am only focusing on her, and in just one thing. I also plan to do some hiking with her this year!! I am very excited to see what 2013 brings!!

Susan - Yikes!! That is a scary time you have had but thanking God too that many tests proved otherwise. I went 7 weeks while they did all kinds of scans, tests etc so determined I must have cancer that they missed a ruptured appendix although the signs were fairly classic (:

Susan - Yikes!! That is a scary time you have had but thanking God too that many tests proved otherwise. I went 7 weeks while they did all kinds of scans, tests etc so determined I must have cancer that they missed a ruptured appendix although the signs were fairly classic (:

They missed a ruptured appendix? Wow, that is scary! Good thing you are ok!! That is the first thing they checked(CT scan) on me last summer, before they found out I had a ruptured ovarian cyst. I can't believe they didn't rule that out on you first

No. If it is a stand stay paw movement is scored, and on the sit stay, depending on how much they move and who the judge is it might be scored, but in both cases only as points off, not as an NQ

Definitely depends on who the judge is....

One of Jacks' q's - I was mentally counting lost points as his flipped from one hip to the other and twitched and shifted and reared his head up and around....

I was stunned when I found out that the judge didn't take any points off for all of that. He said he was looking at Jacks, but made a judgement call to let the wiggles go. I thanked him profusely and ran away out of the ring with my ribbons before he could change his mind.

This was a judge I'd been warned about ahead of time as being stiff on taking points off and judging fairly, so I was absolutely not expecting that kindness.

* This week we have Open class tomorrow, Utility class on Tuesday, and Puppy class on Saturday. So I will be fairly busy. As will both boys - as long as Bertie doesn't bark, he'll be coming with to sneak extra socialization and training in. I want to see what the setting is like on Saturday. If it's quiet and just 4-5 people, I'll bring the crate for Jacks.

Bertie has officially outgrown his travel crate too, so he's unfortunately riding loose in the car until I get a harness in. I was concerned driving to the vet (shot) today, but he actually just sat in the backseat and looked around like he had an invisible harness on.

. . .
It has been over a month, probably closer to 6 weeks, since I have actually really trained, and I am very excited to get back into it. Not only did I have a long time off from training because of the holidays, but I also had a big health scare.

Nothing like a serious health scare to help you recalibrate your priorities. Glad things turned out ok.

We have been concentrating on heeling and stays this week, while fitting in minimal work on fronts, finishes, moving downs, etc. This will be the focus for the next few days as well.

-8 F windchill means I moved furniture out of the way, so we could use four rooms and a hallway again. It's a good challenge with a lot of turns.

On the class syllabus for this Thursday: "Intro to off-leash heeling (Light Lines)." I anticipate this will be easy for Bella, since we're already using the light line to practice the figure 8, and we've been doing some slow off leash heeling in the house for at least two months.

My #1 focus for the immediate future will to clean up our heeling. #2 is stays.

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